Disc/Holy PvP: Guide and Discussion

#0 - Dec. 27, 2007, 4:42 a.m.

Intro
I started writing this in response to a thread about rogue/disc priest teams but these tactics can be applied to pretty much any combination with a priest. Im not going to claim to be the most practiced or best geared priest out there because im not. But through my fighting I have found certain tactics to give me the best shot and that because of the lack of guides out there I have had to use trial and error to find

Most of all i would like to hear from other peoples tactics as I myself am trying to learn how best to go about pvp encounters and we can use this thread to help each other out and open up new ideas for each other. I hope this will give the priests out there either noobs or experienced some way to ask questions and get answers.

Gear
First are foremost you need to collect yourself some pvp gear. Yes you are a healer going into the arena with Karazhan healer gear is probably not the best idea.

As a disc priest you need to concentrate on building up your survivability. You can do this by stacking resiliance and stamina. Resilance is very important because lowers the speed at which others can kill you and lowers the effectiveness of their attacks. Once you reach a certain amount of survivability you will in most cases only die when you run out of mana. Increasing your resilience also means less healing and so more mana.

The easiest way to get the best pvp gear is in fact pvp. Get down to your bgs and start farming.

Talents
Just the same as your gear, to get the most effective priest for arena you must spec for pvp. The Discipline tree will give you increased survivability and improve the efficiency of your instant cast spells.
The Holy tree concentrates on healing power and casting spells. To get the most out of your priest you can just put all your talents into one of these trees, you must make a balance. Currently I have placed my most of my talents into the Discipline tree with a 42/19/0 spread. This enables me to be an effective instant spell caster.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxxGuhgtMcozfVxoc

Explanation of my Build

Holy:
Healing Focus – Allows you cast more easily under pressure
Improved Renew - Renew is an important spell and you should keep it up at all times on players who are damaged
Spell Warding - Good for lowering the dps of casters and helps when dealing with being nuked
Divine Fury - Reducing your casting speed of greater heal, a must have to make this an effective spell
Blessed Recovery - Giving back health from a crit, doesnt help too much as multiple crits will only cause it to refresh not stack
Improved Healing- Makes your Greater Heal more mana efficient, this talent could be scrapped for more points in the Disc tree as you wont find yourself casting too much

Discipline:
Unbreakable Will - Reduces the chance that I will be stunned, feared and silienced
Silent Resolve – Slows down the rate that the enemy can purge/dispel your heals/buffs
Improved Fortitude – Unless Fort is removed increases you are your teammates max health giving you more chance to get heals off
Martyrdom – If an enemy crits you, you will gain focus casting and a resistance to interruption for 6 seconds
Absolution- Increases the mana efficiency of all dispels
Inner Focus -Gives you a free spell every 3 minutes with increased chance to crit, use for casted healing spells or can be used on expensive spells such as Mass Dispell
Meditation- Gives you mana regen from spirit even during the heat of battle. Helps you last long fights
Mental Agility-All instant cast spells are more mana efficient; good for lasting longer battles
Improved Mana Burn- Lowers casting time of Mana Burn; a must for all serious PvP priest
Mental Strength- Increases your mana pool
Devine Spirit- Increases spirit and due to meditation increases mana regeneration through out the fight, if anything is also a dispel buffer
Focused Power- Reduces cast time of Mass Dispel; effective at breaking pally shield and mage Ice Block
Focused Will- When you are crit reduces damage on yourself and increases healing; increases survivability
Power Infusion- Can be used on you or on your allies to increase damage or healing output
Enlightenment- Increases your core stats of Stamina, Intellect, and Spirit
Pain Suppression- Reduce damage on yourself or ally; great way to prevent large amounts of burst damage focused on one person

Druid
Put your dpser on his dpser. Try to dispel all HOTs and buffs on the the enemy dps to give the your ally an easier time and to make it hard for the druid. You should chase the druid and try to mana burn him when he goes out to heal. The more he is running the more mana he is going to waste on changing form. If the dps attacks you try to get your friend to slow/CC him. When the druid gets on low mana send your pet after him so he stays in combat and get your friend to go after the druid. If the dps tries to stay on your dps MC him. The main thing you have to make sure is that you don’t allow that pesky druid to drink or you are done for. I find that he normally runs out of mana before me and that its just a matter of making sure that your dps switches. Communication is key.

Against 2xDPS
This can be touch and go at times but here you are trying to make sure that you are using maxium CC and not getting caught out casting as that could spell the end of your friend. I find it is best to send the rogue in first with you hanging back out of range. Once the rogue enters combat and they are focusing on him pop your pain suppression on who ever they are nuking (normally the rogue) and heal like crazy. Dont be too trigger happy with your trinket and keep it for when you really need a heal off. Try to stay out of the heat of the battle so their CC is as limited as possible and dont forget to use fear to give yourself a breather even if you aren't getting attacked yourself.

Hunters
I find hunters very annoying as they kite my rogue and can really do some serious damage- not to mention their viper stings can change a battle completely. Since damage means more healing for you. In my experience the best way to stop a hunter is to Pain Suppress who ever he is attacking and mana burn the crap out of them. Most hunters have very little mana and if you can take that away they can do no special moves including traps and viper sting (more mana for you). Of course this means getting yourself out in the open. I generally only do this if either im facing another healer or their dps is low.

In some situations you will find that is better to kill their pet fast especially if he is a beast spec. This will lower you dps and allow you to drink.

Rogues
Rogues are probably the biggest pain the ass for priests. With their stun and poisons they can make a real mess of you really quickly. Make sure your partner picks these guys up fast and gives you time to heal yourself because if you let a good rogue stay unhindered you are going to be dead pretty soonish.

Warriors
Warriors can a be a tough attacker to heal over. Their MS lowers healing by 50%, certain skills allow them partial immunity to fear, hamstring keeps you slowed, pummel to interrupt your casts, intercept and intimidating shouts as CC.

You will eventually die from a warrior unless you attack him in a 1vs1 situation. The best way to slow down the process of dying against a warrior is:

Even in a 2vs2 it is normally best for dps to attack the warrior to limit his dps and because the other heal is likely to kite. When the warrior is CCed move away from him and try either mana burn the other healer, drink, or move away from him and heal without the MS debuff on you. Due to charge/intercept the warrior wont be off your back for too long so use your free time wisely.

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